Associate Director of Business Development

Role Responsibilities:

• Develop and execute regional and territory business plans aligned with national and commercial strategies.
• Identify high-value prospects and engage them in early access programs and commercial product solutions.
• Align closely with key account business drivers, ensuring continuous collaboration between Sales and Alliance Management.
• Build and maintain key customer relationships with c-suite executives, KOLs, and senior stakeholders within the region.
• Drive the initial customer presentation and manage follow-ups, focusing on technical meetings as necessary.
• Actively engage in marketing initiatives to foster collaboration and new business opportunities.
• Close large strategic deals by understanding customer needs and offering tailored solutions.
• Collaborate across functional teams, including sales, marketing, product development, and alliance management, to address customer objectives.
• Maintain a comprehensive understanding of the market and customers, focusing on strategy, financial performance, regulatory, and competitive landscape.
• Research and master industry-specific methods and techniques relevant to strategic commercial initiatives and the cell and gene editing market.
• Lead cross-functional teams to build tools, resources, and collateral supporting new product launches and commercial growth.
• Contribute to solution design and ensure customer needs are defined and met, working closely with development and solutions teams.

Top 5 Must Haves:

• Sales execution and product launch
• Prospect engagement
• Customer relationship Management
• Business Acumen (Forecasting, negotiating and contracting)
• Technical capabilities

Other key Experiences, Skills or Qualifications:

• Minimum of 8+ years of sales experience, preferably in selling research use only (RUO) products within Biopharmaceutical market.
• Bachelor’s of Sciences in a Life Science discipline. MBA and/or Masters / Ph.D. strongly preferred.
• Extensive knowledge of biopharma research and development processes and regulatory pathway, with clarity on prioritized targets, call points, internal decision-makers, and related insights.
• Proven track record of selling high-value, complex solutions to multiple decision makers and negotiating large multi-year deals and/or licenses.
• Proven experience in sales/business development, with the ability to scale from modular sales to larger strategic partnerships.
• Demonstrated ability to craft term sheets, contracts, licensing and collaboration agreements.
• Deep understanding of and/or experience in drug development projects, lab services, therapeutic assets, bioinformatics, real-world data and evidence programs, and clinical trial-related products/services in pharma and biotech.
• Strong understanding of the underlying and supporting technologies for cell and gene therapy research, and the regulatory processes for IVD approvals.
• Experience in cell and molecular biology techniques (gene editing/NGS) and workflows used in drug discovery and development. Preferred experience in research tools platform sales and bioinformatic workflows.
• Experience as the external face of the organization, leading and participating in partnering events (e.g., JPM, BIO) and technology conferences (e.g., ASCGT, ALDA, AGBT).Strong forecasting skills to ensure targeted demand planning both internally and externally.
• Analytical and fact-based, with the ability to draw on knowledge and experience in therapeutics.

Behaviours:

• Ability to build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders at multiple levels within an organization.
• Exceptional communication skills, both written and verbal, to effectively engage with stakeholders at all levels to proficiently build and nurture relationships with internal teams and external clients.
• Ability to develop and implement business plans that align with broader organizational strategies, skilled in identifying high-value prospects and engaging them effectively.
• Technical understanding of genome editing technologies and their applications in the Biopharma sector and translate those into a strong customer value proposition to drive engagement.
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously with strong organizational skills and to collaborate with cross-functional teams to develop tools and resources to support product launches and commercial growth.
• Comprehensive understanding of the biopharma market, including financial performance, regulatory environment, and competitive landscape with knowledge of industry-specific methods and technologies, particularly in cell and gene editing.